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They discuss their achievements to date, challenges encountered and the lessons they have learnt in their quest to design and build an aircraft that could operate in a humanitarian aid mission.
Q: Could you briefly tell us about your team – any interesting facts or background information?
Team QUADWing (TQ): We are a relatively small team of three trying to achieve something big. Two of our members have been working on the development of the UAS itself, while the final member was developing the imaging system.
Our electrical and propulsion systems engineer graduated from the Civil Aviation University of China, majoring in aircraft propulsion engineering and the team leader graduated from Swansea University in aerospace engineering, where they are both studying their postgraduate. The imaging system lead is in his final year at the University of Southampton completing their MEng in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering.
Q: Could you tell us about the design and innovation aspect of your aircraft?
TQ: We designed a compound aircraft with a quad rotor and fixed wing setup. Since we are quite a small team, we decided to keep everything simple with as little unknowns as possible. We decided upon a quad rotor setup for the VTOL capabilities and a single tractor motor for fast and efficient forward flight.
Since we had an additional propulsion system on our UAS, we took steps to reducing weight in other areas by doubling up the vertical stabiliser as the landing gear, designing a very low weight spool mechanism for payload delivery and utilising structurally efficient aerodynamic surfaces.
Q: How could your UAV be used to help vulnerable people and fight against COVID-19?
TQ: Our UAS fully tested and capable would make a huge difference in providing relief during this crisis. It is very flexible with its VTOL capabilities and long range, fixed wing flight.
The platform could make a great delivery and pickup service for COVID-19 or any other tests for those self-isolating and/or vulnerable; allowing them to continue their self-isolation and preventing them from having to travel to their hospital or GP where the risk of spreading/contracting the virus is increased. The imaging system could be adapted to search for a pattern on the sample box which would allow for very accurate pickup.
Q: What are the key skills you learnt from this project and what were the challenges you faced?
TQ: Since we had never designed an unmanned vehicle before, we learnt a lot about the autopilot and accompanying systems on board required for autonomous flight.
On the non-technical side, we learnt a lot about writing professional reports, obtaining sponsors, team management and preparing a Dragon’s Den business case.
A big challenge we faced was dealing with delays and unforeseen circumstances during the project. If one part of the design or manufacture was incorrect and needed to be changed that was 50% of our workforce taken away from completing their already busy schedule and solving these issues in a quick and efficient manner was key to the project.
To recognise teamwork done to date, the UAS Challenge organising committee has agreed to host a virtual awards ceremony taking place at 2:30pm on 19 June 2020 to present teams with the following awards:
- Design Award
- Highest Placed New Entrant Award
- Innovation Award
- Business Proposition Award
- Safety Award
- Media & Engagement Award
Registration for the event is now open!